then again, after Hux called him a pagan savage he also called him a pissbaby, so maybe I'm not meant to take this so seriously.
Having characters switch into another language for very short phrases with no real explanation so you just occasionally have dialogue in a possibly* fictional language and then a translation in the narration And it just feels weird (*im not bothering to find out if this scandanavian looking dialogue is real or made up, idk if the author decided that frost giants speak norwegian or what) Edit: it reminds me of the 5 seconds i remember of that one canadian movie Bon Cop Bad Cop where some dude is like "blah blah something real bad happened... a cause de toi >:3" because yknow you cant just.... have him finish that thought in the language he started it in? Anyway)
Depends on how you process languages, I'd say. Considering my internal monologue is like 90% nonverbal and I speak two languages, there's a decent amount of mashup, and there's phrases that translate really, really, badly. Especially if certain words have connotations to you. It, of course, also depends on the context.
i mean, code switching is a thing! people who are multilingual do sometimes switch languages mid-sentence, even just dropping in a single word in a different language. your example from the Canadian movie makes a lot of sense, as Canada has two official languages and there's a lot of bilingual people. there's a lot of reasons why a person might code switch. of course, whether or not a fic (or even a movie or tv show!) shows accurate code switching is a whole different story.
Yeah accurate code switching is hard to find and do. Like finding accurate Russian accents done by English speaking studios. Part of why I was amazed by Axiom Verge is that the Rusalki managed all the weird pecularities of grammar and word choice that Russian speakers of English make. This is often an issue with Overwatch fics, I've found. Accents tend to be messed up or based off inaccurate, racist stereotypes (see: Zarya) and the code switching doesn't really align with how natives themselves do it when writing a native speaking character (see: Ana). I personally tend to not mind attempts at code switching even if they're not the best, but then I pick up things very quickly where that's concerned. Republic Commando's apparently very annoying to some due to the frequent usage of Mando'a in the books. Which I think brings up the other issue of it when it's handled poorly. Namely that of theme and worldbuilding. RepComm had reasons for there to be large amounts of Mando'a sprinkled into the otherwise English text. They were books about finding a home in a culture you had been previously denied. Books about struggling to learn YOUR language and to keep YOUR heritage and to be YOUR own person. Thematically there was a purpose and world building wise too. Usage of Mando'a isn't considered a nice plus by the culture but instead an actual cultural and spiritual requirement. Kind of like how you'll see new Muslims begin to use small bits of Arabic here and there even if it's not how native speakers code switch. Arabic is a cultural requirement and these are people trying to fit into their new found culture. Basically RepComm's a nice little package of a reasonable theme and worldbuilding around why we have a lot of a fictional space language around. And then you have the stories where people just kind of drop in random ass fucking Japanese in the anime and JRPG fandoms because we're giddy about knowing Japanese. In the case of anime the problem is often that the characters are speaking Japanese itself. Unless it's like names of people, places, religious things, or weapons or honorifics (which may or may not be vital depending on the piece) then generally we don't need just random untranslated Japanese. With JRPGs the issue is often that people don't even speak the language in those games more than likely so it comes off as jarring. A good example is untranslated Japanese in Fire Emblem fanfics. But a character like Ana from Overwatch has basically all reason to codeswitch as she's often speaking English. Arabs do it a lot, Egyptians included. And Sombra I would find it bizarre and offputting if we weren't codeswitching at least sometimes. Spanglish is simply how Mexican speakers of that language do in English. Like at least give me a pinche cabron if that's all you know. But the issue with this still remains that a lot of readers won't necessarily know these languages or have the patience to put up with them. Especially not when we're pulling James Joyce shit and just sticking entirely untranslated chunks of Latin into the text for The Aesthetic. I might find it lovely but others will hate it and that's fine I think. I just want to clarify that. Just it's an interesting topic and I'd like to share my issues with codeswitching in fiction and fanfiction and when it annoys me or whatever.
I think part of it also has to do with like... does the character code-switch in canon? Why/why not? Are you adding the text because you feel like that's a natural way for the character to talk, or are you adding the text because google translate looks so much fun and you're pretty sure this Sexy Spanish is going to take your fic to the next level? For me, the most jarring uses are when it's a character that has never in their life spoken anything but English in the canon or when the author clearly is throwing in words irrespective of whatever grammar rules they're breaking in both languages. ("Konnichiwa, I watashi John Smith," comes to mind as something that was hideously common in some of the old anime fandoms I was in.) The former can be worked around, I think, and I've seen depictions of characters that code-switch in fanon only that do work. But the latter's pretty much a wash at that point, and there's better ways to add ~authentic flair~ than by mangling a language to prove that you took half of a first lesson in it.
Exactly KingStarscream. Even for people who do like this shit there's ways that it's jarring and having someone who has no business dropping random words in another language doing so just comes off as...odd. To say the least. It's part of why I'm weirded out by the Reaper Spanglish thing as he never does that in canon so it just feels...weird. There's other reasons I don't like it that I've talked about here before but that's one of them.
What specifically weirded me out was something like ""(I'm not bothering to go look this up but pretend its like four words in a vaguely nordic looking language)," he spat. You piece of shit." And immediately i was like... no dont translate what the protagonist says in the narration... idk why it just feels weird. For "people swearing/insulting in fictional languages" i sort of prefer the YA approach of just like, saying he swore or said something very rude about the other persons mom or something, altho that has sort of a comedy feel to me. Idk Edit: for *other* people's dialogue to be translated after the protagonist has heard/read it in the original language, thats fine with me. It reads like the protagonist heard it and took a second to translate it, and feels natural i guess
Yeah it's very much a preference thing in many ways. I tend to prefer like stupid sci-fi swears because I'm a nerd. But a lot of people think that things like kriffing are stupid.
To me, "He swore" sounds fine and fairly neutral as long as the swearing in question is general-purpose shouting rude words at the world in general, but is a little weird when they're directed at someone, but coy descriptors like, "He called her a word his mother would be very disappointed to know he knew" have a comedy feel to them, yeah. I think it's easier if the POV isn't the character doing the swearing- then you can have something like, "he said something in Norwegian, and while she didn't understand the words, the tone left no doubt as to the gist of it."
Spoiler: spoilers for the Phasma book and also arguably nsfw this isn't really a gripe, but. Whenever I see daddy kink stuff with Kylo, specifically when it's played entirely straight, all I can think is, boy howdy that's awkward. Yunno, considering. Not so much with Hux, cause they're kinda. "Heard you killed your dad. Congrats on finally joining to big kids club with me and Phasma. Did you paint yourself in his blood? No? Oh dear, don't tell Phasma, she'll be so disappointed." But sometimes I'll see dd/lg stuff with Reylo, and it always reads to me like "I have usurped your father figure, I am your daddy now." Distressingly Freudian. Incidentally, Phasma and Hux must think Kylo's the biggest goddamned pansy. "Guilty, about murdering your dad? Can't relate." Phasma's like, stop crying, Ren, it's a normal part of growing up. Hux's like, did you get his skull? What's even the point if you don't get a souvenir.
If the only way I can picture how the characters are positioned is to imagine them with no legs and mentally stick them on later, there's a problem.
When writing a fic wherein the female characters stick it to a sexist jerk (in a ridiculous, cliche, not actually feminist at all way, but never mind that)…maybe don't choose as your designated misogynist villain a character who canonically appears to have no particular concept of gender (and sometimes presents as female anyway). Because that's stupid. ALSO Spoiler: not safe for work or life Vampire-on-human smutfic involving period sex, fine by me. Vampire tongues entering uteruses and slurping out the contents? Fucking gross.
Way too many writers, both fan and original, seem to have no grasp of what the cervix is supposed to do. Though I'm pretty sure penanggalan could do it, but not Western vampires.
